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As I said in my little write up about technics 1210's, there has only ever been one other company willing to stick there neck out above the competition and risk being better than everyone else. Vestax are the ones to have done this the best. Starting with their PDT 5000 deck. Then came a few more inclusing a specialist scratch deck. then last year they brought this little baby out, PDX D3, with high torque direct drive motor, adjustable pitch fader 3, 6 or 12% rverse play, wind down/up digital pitch display, Joystick tempo adjustment, and speed control and of course vestax straight tone arm technology for extra hard scratching. Sounds good, well it aint... Its amzing, the first time you use the deck its like going from a Beatle to a Bentley, its super powerful motor for instant start-up, or near as, straight tone arm that is near to impossible to make skip, its wind down featute that sounds so cool and for something a little different go backwards! Its the best deck ever! But you dont half pay for that, at £899 they arent a toy. If you were saving up for some technics, and really dont think you can afford these. Wait, and save up some more dosh because if you buy he 1210s and your mate gos the whole way, youll be gutted when you use them, take my word for it there the dogs.

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Take your 1200's and chuck them in the wardrobe along with flares, disco and other out of date 70's styles - vestax D3's will chew them up and spit them out. These babies just couldn't look or feel much better, build quality and finish is excellent and all controls have that great expensive feel. The plate is super stable, and just about impossible to stop - torque is the word. Start is just about instant, and stop is real fast too - dosent always come to a dead stop though. Probably the most powerful deck I have ever played, might get beaten by the new 2000's?? Pitch control is digital, and can be adjusted to 3, 6, 12% this is great for really accurate mixes, and you can leave a long running mix alone without it creeping. There is no centre click, so accurate adjustment is possible right over the range - quartz lock is available on a button if you feel like it. So is motor off and reverse if you feel like that (you will). The Joystick(!!) lets me pitch bend in one plane, and super speed/slow in the other. Pitch bend is also digitally controlled and assignable via a button on the top. Bend of 1,2,3% is available, I tend to use a combination of Lever bend to rapidly get beats in step, then manual tweaks to get it perfect. The super speed/slow is great for showing off - love it! ASTS straight tone arm is top knotch, I use Ortophon Concorde Nightclub (E) carts, and these will not skip no matter what abuse I can give them, and with only 3g tracking force (up to 7 g available). The arm is rubber mounted, and resists feedback to the bitter edge. It just looks so stylie.... Sound quality is superb and output is via RCA plugs, which allows you to use a quality set of aftermarket cables to really let them sing. I cant think of any problems except for the price, and the brake not always dead stopping - we are talking just creeping round sometimes (im a bit of a perfectionist..) Possib ly the best product I have ever bought!!!